


Taken 4

by GiggleSnortBangDead



Series: El Presidente 'Verse [2]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: El Presidente Vince McMahon AU, F/F, Kidnapping, Kink Meme, Minor Character Death, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 02:47:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5273615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiggleSnortBangDead/pseuds/GiggleSnortBangDead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Sasha is the Boss of the criminal world and Bayley is her cute and bubbly wife that absolutely no one messes with because Sasha is nuts, but this new gang rolls into town and decides they need to make a statement at the Boss's expense...so they kidnap Bayley. Sasha proceeds to snatch edges and save the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taken 4

**Author's Note:**

> Another edition of GSBD tries to fill a prompt and ends up sort of going totally off book. I'm really sorry about that by the way. Maybe I should stop filling prompts? I dunno. (Original prompt fill [here](http://wrestlingkink.dreamwidth.org/279.html?thread=412695#cmt412695).)
> 
> Also, I've never seen any of the Taken movies (there are three right???). I just figured, like, Sasha Banks and Liam Neeson are both pretty intimidating?

Sasha "The Boss" Banks had had a long day. While she'd been able to work out a tentative truce with her rival syndicate, PCB, just last week - mostly because of Bayley's ability to be friends with seemingly everyone before they were even on Sasha's radar - the "Bella Twins" and their motley crew had decided it'd be the right time to move in and try to snuff out all of her investments. On top of that, the P in PCB had either gotten greedy or going rogue was the hot new trend, right next to causing trouble for Sasha. Either way, the P/CB split had put a definite downer on her afternoon.  
  
And after a long day of busting heads - literally and metaphorically - all she wanted was to have a nice night in with her wife. As it was, Sasha hadn't had much time for her lately, and she may have been starting to feel the teensiest bit guilty about that - and Bayley had never really been one whose affections she could buy off. Bayley was all about that one-on-one, person-to-person, physical contact. Sasha, unfortunately, couldn't buy her happiness and love like she might have wanted to.   
  
So, as she stepped through the door of their large and lavish house, a bright, genuine smile plastered on her tired face, she was a little shocked to not see her wife, puttering around the living room or kitchen, waiting for her like she usually did.   
  
Sasha dropped her keys onto the side table, next to some of the colorful, mildly tacky knickknacks Bayley insisted they keep, and called out for her.  
  
"Babe!" When there was no response, no pattering of feet as Bayley ran from wherever she was hiding to greet her with a hug and a kiss and an explanation as to where she'd been, Sasha checked her phone. There were no messages from her, no missed calls, and Sasha was starting to feel uneasy.   
  
She never got home before Bayley, unless there was a late event at elementary school she worked at - but Bayley always talked about those for weeks in advance, so Sasha always knew when they were.  
  
"Babe?" she tried again, making her way to the stairs, starting up to check the upper floors. "Bayley? Is everything alright?"  
  
She checked their bedroom for a note, then the office, and was close to checking under the beds and rugs, becoming more and more unnerved with each passing second. And Sasha had been told that she didn't handle being unnerved well.  
  
Glancing at her phone again, and still, predictably, obviously, there was nothing. She went back downstairs, stepping quick, dialing as she started to search the house.   
  
"Hey, yeah, Boss?" Naomi's voice came through, friendly but edged in it's serious way, making it clear she was ready for any kind of information to be dropped on her.  
  
"I can't find Bayley." Sasha stated, looking out their backyard, scanning through their den.  
  
"What do you mean you can't  _find_  - "  
  
"I mean, she is not  _here_  in our  _home_  where she  _should_  be."  
  
"Maybe she just stepped out." her partner said, tone clearly expressing her sudden disinterest, lack of worry.  
  
"Not without leaving a note. Bayley loves leavings notes," she explained, like it was the most irritating, more endearing thing in the world. She rounded the corner into the kitchen saying, "She likes to draw little pictures on them," but she was trailing off, something in the middle of the floor catching her attention, making her blood run cold.  
  
"Boss?"  
  
Bayley's headband had been thrown, left, haphazard on the floor, the bow trampled and dirty. That really wasn't where her headband was supposed to be. And Sasha really didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but she knew that being a mobster's wife wasn't the safest position someone could find themselves in.  
  
"Boss?" Naomi repeated. "What happened?"   
  
Someone rang the doorbell and Sasha nearly sprinted to the door - but there was no one there when she wrenched it open. There was just a plain box, wrapped in red paper.  
  
"Oh, fuck," she said.  
  
"Oh, fuck?" Naomi repeated. "No, no, no, girl, what kind of fucked up bullshit - " and Sasha mostly tuned her out, picking the package up.  
  
"Someone left me something." Sasha finally said, exhaustion and fear battling in her chest.  
  
"Oh,  _hell_  no." Naomi said. "That's a bomb. Whatever it is, do not touch it - "  
  
"It's pretty light. I don't think it's a bomb. I'm gonna open it."  
  
"Don't be stupid! Just - wait a goddamn second!"  
  
Sasha was tearing off the wrapping paper, and her hands might have been shaking a little but she pulled off the lid nonetheless. Inside, there was a cut strand of brown hair and a Polaroid picture, with some sharpie black writing on it.   
  
"Oh, no." Sasha choked out. Naomi was saying something in her ear, but Sasha couldn't hear anything at all, not then, her heart beating too loudly in her ears.   
  
Bayley was gagged, tied to a chair, her hair mussed, her clothes disheveled, her mascara running under her eyes. She'd been  _crying_. She looked _scared_ , and Sasha Banks was going to kill somebody tonight.   
  
"Naomi," she said, voice relatively level.  
  
"Well, I'm assuming it wasn't a bomb 'cause you're not  _dead_  - "  
  
"I'm gonna need you to call everyone in. I think we might have to work a long weekend."  
  
The implication hit Naomi hard and fast. "Oh,  _shit_." and she disconnected to start making phone calls. Sasha snatched up her car keys and the Polaroid and tucked the strand of hair into her back pocket for luck. For Bayley's sake, she just might need it.

* * *

When Sasha got to their offices at B.A.D., almost everyone was there. Naomi seemed to be arguing with Xavier on the phone about how his Let's Play video could  _wait_ , and, no, she wasn't sure about all the details, but something had happened to Bayley - and apparently that was all that was needed to get his attention.   
  
"So what's going on?" Tamina asked, sidling up next to her.  
  
"Someone took Bayley." Sasha stated, and then louder, to the group, said, "Have we had any contact from the Bella Twins or their people tonight?"  
  
The general consensus from Kofi and Big E, who seemed to be the ones supervising the office night shift, was negative. "Is that who you think took her?" Naomi asked.   
  
Sasha took the Polaroid out, careful to keep her hand over the picture, not sure if it was for her sake or Bayley's. They didn't need to see it anyway; what was important was the scribble of text underneath and on the back.  **You can look...**  was penned in girlish, black loops on the front,  **But you can't touch~**  bringing up the rear, with a dark red lipstick mark below.   
  
"Either the Bella Twins really want our attention, or someone wants us to think that they do." Sasha said, tucking the photo away and safe. "So, I need everyone to get on figuring that out for me - because some heads are getting cracked tonight, and I'd like to make sure we save time and only crack the right ones."  
  
"Sure thing." Naomi nodded, already pulling out her phone again. "I'll have Cesaro see what he can pick up. He's still pretty tight with Nikki Bella's main squeeze."  
  
"No, Naomi, I'm gonna want you with me. Big E, you call Cesaro. Kofi, I want you to start drafting a message to CB. Have Xavier try to reach out to Paige if he can. They all like Bayley, so I can't see them denying us access. Tamina, Naomi - " Sasha started, looking at her partners.  
  
"You got it." Tamina said. "We'll suit up. How hot we going in?"  
  
Sasha didn't even think about it. "Red hot. Even if it's not the Bellas - "  
  
"We'll be hitting up someone later." Naomi cut in, already walking off to get her jacket and piece. "It's been a while since we got to do any real leg work."  
  
"Let's not start thinking we're doing this for fun." Sasha snapped, and Naomi pretended to ignore it. She turned her gaze to Big E, snatching his attention in the middle of his conversation with Cesaro. "Try to have an answer for me before I walk through the Bellas' front door."   
  
E nodded, talking faster, the rest of Sasha's upper management workforce scurrying to their tasks. Tamina led the way to the car, and Naomi got behind the wheel, Sasha taking the back. She didn't really feel up for driving, but she didn't tell anyone that.  
  
"What are we going to do if they don't find out?" Tamina asked.  
  
The smile Sasha gave her was brittle, saccharine. "Ask the Bellas very nicely if they've seen my wife." Naomi pulled out of the parking garage.  
  
The night was just turning, the setting sun and city pollution turning the sky pink purple and cloudy. Sasha pulled the Polaroid out to look at it again, and reached into her back pocket for the strand of hair. Her hands weren't usually so restless, so she ran the dark lock through her fingers and looked steadily out the window.   
  
"Hey, Boss." Naomi said, catching her eye in the rear view when Sasha finally turned to look at her. "Don't worry. We're gonna find her."  
  
"Oh, I know." Sasha nodded, but almost felt uncertain, which was never a good sign. The only person Sasha could trust more than herself was cold and alone somewhere, in the dark, frightened, needing her to be  _certain_.  
  
When her cellphone finally sounded, Sasha didn't even look, she just picked it up on the first ring. "What you got, E?"  
  
" _Sasha?_ "  
  
"Oh my God." Sasha choked out, the Polaroid falling from her fingers, her hand reaching up to tug at her own hair. She made some noise, a gasping, weak laugh that was garbled by the fact that her heart had leaped into her throat. She tried to swallow it down, to say softly, "Bayley. Baby, are you okay? Are you hurt?"   
  
The sound Bayley made wasn't exactly promising, all high and whining, but she said, "I'm okay, I'm okay. I - I don't have long to talk." she explained, the word breaking off, like she was close to tears, and Sasha could almost see her face, her eyes red and puffed up, cheeks wet.   
  
"Okay." Sasha said, trying to think clearly. "Okay, Bayley, where are you? Can you tell where you are?"   
  
"No. It's dark, and there's no windows. It's probably a warehouse or something. Has anyone contacted you? About a ransom or something?"   
  
Sasha bit her lip, not wanting to tell her. No ransom meant Bayley'd been taken for more political reasons, and she knew that her chances went down significantly if she wasn't getting bartered. So, Sasha said, "I'm coming to get you. I'm gonna find you. You just gotta stay strong." which was answer enough.  
  
There was a shudder of breath, a shaky intake, and then a small, "Okay." which meant she understood the underlying message, and Sasha hated herself more than she ever had.   
  
"Ask her if she's seen anyone." Tamina prompted.  
  
Sasha nodded in thanks, swallowing her distress, trying to sound lighter when she said, "Honey, have you seen anybody? Anybody you might recognize, so I can catch whatever fucker did this?"   
  
"There're these two women - but I've never seen them before. They - they keep mentioning the Bellas, but I've never seen them before." Bayley repeated, and Sasha closed her eyes tight, throwing her head back against the seat a few times.  
  
"That's okay, baby." she said. "Are they there with you now?"  
  
It took Bayley a second, but she got out, "Yeah."  
  
Sasha rubbed a hand over her face. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"  
  
"I think," Bayley started, and cut herself off, voice getting lodged in her throat. "I keep hearing someone else, screaming. I haven't seen them but they - they  _won't stop screaming_."  
  
"Bayley - " Sasha started, unsure what to say, wanting nothing more but to make it better.  
  
"I have to go." she said, her voice raising in panic. "I have to - "  
  
"I love you. I love you. I'm coming for - " And Sasha was cut off by her wife, starting to sob, starting to make some horrible, terror-ridden, wracked sound that she'd never heard from her before. The line was disconnected.  
  
No one said anything in the car, and Sasha buried her face in her hands, Bayley's loose hair tickling against her cheek. The cell blared again, and Tamina turned in her seat, taking the phone from where it had fallen beside her. She answered, and spoke, and ended the call in a way that Sasha didn't feel very connected with.  
  
"Cesaro said that Nikki's boyfriend was also missing - and it looked like we did it. I think this is a frame job."   
  
"Great." Naomi intoned. "What's the plan?" she asked.  
  
Tamina looked back to see if Sasha was ready to make any sort of decisions. Sasha took a deep breath, grabbed her phone back, flipped her hair.   
  
"Call E back. Tell him to make sure the Bellas know we're coming."

* * *

The Bellas' headquarters were even more frantic than Team B.A.D.'s had been, although Sasha could only guess how things might have escalated at home base in her absence. They were waved in by an overworked, overmuscled underling who must have been briefed that they'd be coming. Sasha didn't think she'd ever get welcomed so warmly to the Bellas' offices again.  
  
They were led to a back room, and the underling asked them to remove their weapons before going in, when Alicia Fox wrenched the door open.  
  
"What do you think this is?" she snapped at the suddenly very small, very embarrassed hired muscle. "Some kind of peace treaty signing? Get back to work!" Turning her attention to Sasha and her partners, she said, only a little sweeter, "Come in."   
  
Inside, Nikki Bella was pacing, practically snarling at whoever she was on the phone with. Her sisters was furiously typing away on a laptop, not bothering to look up. Nikki ended her phone call with a frustrated shout of, "Fucking  _idiot!_ " slamming the phone down on her desk. Seeing the Bellas so off their game actually made Sasha feel a little better, but not much calmer.   
  
Nikki fixed her narrowed eyes on Sasha, barking, "It took you long enough!"  
  
"Excuse me?" Sasha bit out. "I didn't see you making an effort to reach out when this started."   
  
"Well, I didn't think you were involved when this all started!" Nikki shot back. "I've been busy trying to find  _John_ , my  _husband_."  
  
"And I'm trying to find my wife." Sasha said, her voice raising uncontrollably, taking a step forward without thinking.  
  
Nikki looked at her sister, who glanced up from the laptop. "She's telling the truth. I just got an email from Nattie; her wife was taken too."  
  
"Wow, Brie," Nikki's voice had turned to ice. "That would have been really great information to have  _before_  they showed up."  
  
"I just got the email!"  
  
" _Ugh!_ " Nikki ran a hand through her hair, and then smoothed her palms in the air, faking her way into composure. "It's fine. What does  _Team B.A.D._  know?"  
  
"I know they've got Bayley - and your husband probably - in some kind of warehouse. No one's asked for a ransom. And they tried to make it look like your people pulled this all off."  
  
Nikki Bella snorted. "So, nothing?"  
  
"Well," Sasha seethed, crossing her arms over her chest, eyes narrowing, "What do you have?"  
  
"She's got a point." Brie chimed in. "Besides, it confirms that someone's trying to get us to wipe each other out."  
  
"Shut up, Brie!" Nikki shrilled. "I know what it means!" Sasha took a moment to share a look with her partners. The level of instability they were seeing in the Bellas would have been reinforcing if they hadn't actually needed them to have their shit together.   
  
"I don't mean to break up this touching, family moment, but we're sort of on the clock here." Sasha reminded them. "If you don't have anything extra to add, I might as well just quit wasting my time."  
  
"Nattie said that Paige had been asking her about freelancers a few days ago." Foxy spoke up all of a sudden. "She thought maybe PCB was trying to recruit, but now that Paige has taken the P out of the C and the B - " Naomi was immediately out of the room, whipping out her phone to call home with this new information.   
  
"Oh my God, Foxy." Nikki looked close to having an aneurysm. "How was this not something you told me  _hours_  ago?"   
  
"I didn't think of it! I mean, it kind of did seem like they did it for a while," she explained, gesturing towards Sasha, who turned to Nikki with a tight, frustrated smile on her face. "I wasn't thinking about other people!"  
  
Nikki rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. We knew you didn't do it."   
  
"Well, it's  _nice_  to be so trusted." Sasha said. "Can't say we ruled you out that fast."  
  
"Kidnapping like this isn't our style." Brie said. "We don't treat our hostages like this; it's below us." Sasha refrained from snorting, but she did share a meaningful look with Tamina. "Besides, while Bayley might be a little over-excitable - "   
  
"Obnoxious." Nikki supplied, and Sasha wanted to put her head through a table and sublimated by smiling big, showing her teeth.  
  
" - We generally like her." Brie finished.  
  
"John would be so mad if we went after you through her and he found out." Nikki admitted, like it pained her.  
  
"You'd have to spend a night on the couch, huh?" Sasha bit out, and Nikki gave her one of the sharpest smiles she'd ever seen.  
  
Naomi came back in then, already talking, saying, "We've confirmed that Paige was looking into freelancers, specifically interrogators. CB might have more information; Kofi's still negotiating with their people."   
  
"And what about Xavier?" Sasha prompted. "Did he get through to our girl?"  
  
Naomi nodded, lips tight with displeasure for just one moment before stating, "Before we knew what we know. She gave him a basic run around, if she is involved. We doubt she'd be worried by the call, but if any of this gets back to her - "  
  
Sasha nodded, cutting her off, not needing to hear it. "So, we better get moving." Without a half-look back, they started to leave the little office, but Nikki spoke up.  
  
"Hey." she said, and Sasha looked back, her team passing her to the doorway. "If you get to wherever Paige is keeping them before we do - which you won't - " she tacked on. Her over-confidence slipped away almost comically as she said, "Could you make sure John gets out? If you can."  
  
Sasha nodded. "You'll do the same for Bayley if you get there first - which you won't."  
  
Nikki Bella held her gaze, her face set serious. She nodded once, and Sasha turned away, followed her partners out the door.

* * *

"So, where to, Boss?" Naomi asked, the car being pulled up by the Bella valet. "Home base or CB?" A young, fresh faced intern jumped out of the car with a smile, obviously ignorant to the calamity that was rocking the underground crime world, and tossed Naomi the keys.  
  
"Nattie's." Sasha said, letting the intern valet open the door for her and slamming it shut herself.  
  
"Nattie's?" Tamina asked, looking to the backseat as she buckled herself in.  
  
"If CB didn't know Paige was going solo, I don't think they'd know where she's got my wife. But Natalya might." Sasha fixed her gaze out the window, unhappy with how dark it already was. How long had Bayley been in Paige's hands? She hadn't even thought to ask, too hectic, too afraid, too -  
  
"Want me to call home?" Tamina asked. "Have someone let Nattie know we're coming?" Sasha nodded, and Tamina did her job like always.   
  
"How long til we're there?"   
  
"Not long."  
  
They met Nattie at her house, and she's stepped onto the porch to wait for them, her arms crossed, her mouth wrinkling with worry. She met them halfway, walking down her front sidewalk while they got out of the car and, before Sasha knew it, she was being enveloped in a tight, warm hug.   
  
Sasha hadn't known she'd needed that, but she felt herself clutching back almost desperately, tears prickling at her eyes. Nattie let Sasha pull back after a long moment, a hand reaching up to cup her cheek, a warm, sympathetic face filling her view.  
  
"I am so sorry." Nattie said, and then took her arm to start leading her inside, Naomi and Tamina following silently.   
  
"We really don't have much time." Sasha heard herself saying, letting herself be guided nonetheless.  
  
"I know." Nattie murmured, soft, touched, opening the door for her, ushering them into a cozy, domestic living space. "I only have a little information. It won't be long."  
  
Sasha was lost for a second, looking at the photos of Nattie and her family and her friends and Cesaro and TJ that seemed to be everywhere. She had a brief flash of her future life without someone to insist that they take unflattering group pictures and stick them around their home, and how cold her too-big house was going to be.   
  
"The Bellas told us Paige came to you for information about free agents?" Naomi started, when it seemed like Sasha might need a minute to get things started.  
  
Nattie was already stepping over to her desk, grabbing a few papers and handing them to Tamina and Naomi. "These are the people she seemed most interested in. They two girls work as a team, but the man doesn't have the best track record with," and Natalya paused, her eyes darting to Sasha as she struggled for the right phrasing. "His control seems to be spotty."   
  
"Or maybe he just doesn't care." Tamina said, and offered the printouts to Sasha, unwilling to sugarcoat anything for her like Nattie seemed to want.   
  
"Dana Brooke and Emma." Sasha muttered before switching her gaze to the second sheet. "Kevin Owens." She glanced at the other women, before going back to reading, "They've got wildly different styles."   
  
"I think," Nattie suggested, "If Paige really was trying to start something between you and the Bellas, it'd make some sense to pick people who fit your speeds. But - I don't know. It might have just been cost."  
  
"Do you know if she's been scouting out locations?" Sasha asked, finally looking up from the files.   
  
Nattie shook her head and couldn't bring herself to say anything else, but it was alright because in the next few seconds the quiet was filled up with Sasha's ringtone. Without any sort of sign, Tamina took the papers from her Boss and led Naomi and Nattie a few paces away, giving Sasha a false sense of privacy as she stared down at her phone screen and the unknown number.  
  
Vaguely, she could hear Naomi's phone start to go off as well, but she only half-registered it as her associate excused herself to the actual privacy of the connected kitchen. Sasha answered the call.  
  
"Hello?" she said, voice careful, steady. There was a slight intake of breath, and Sasha closed her eyes. "Hey, baby." she barley managed out.   
  
"Hey." Bayley sounded like she'd been gargling tacks, like she'd been screaming since Sasha'd left her, like she'd been crying until recently. And the worst part, that part that made Sasha Banks want to clench her fist and grit her teeth, was that she could tell that Bayley was trying to sound light so she wouldn't worry her mob-queen wife who'd gotten her into this whole mess in the first place.  
  
"Are those two women still there? Have you seen a man at all?"  
  
"It's just been us girls." Bayley hummed.   
  
"Why are they having you call, baby?" Sasha tried, worried that, again, their conversation would be cut short by the freelancers.  
  
"Said it was Bella protocol." Bayley murmured, and the more she talked, the more Sasha could hear a slight slurring of her words, brief pauses between thoughts, like speech wasn't coming very easily. "For Bellas," she started, "Don't you think it's weird how open they've been?" She made a soft, wounded sound that Sasha felt echo deep in her gut. "I thought the Bellas  _liked_  me."   
  
Sasha hushed her, having a hard time thinking of what to say that wouldn't tip anyone off as to their understanding of Paige's involvement. "I'm coming to get you out of there, I promise. You're going to be okay."  
  
"The man," Bayley said, and all of a sudden, she was sobbing, shudders racking through her breath as she barley was able to say, "I can't hear him anymore. Sasha, I think he's dead."  
  
"Shh," Sasha soothed, a little frantically. "Shh, I promise - I'm coming to get you. I'm gonna get to you, so you just," and Sasha had to swallow convulsively, her own voice choking. "Hold on. You just gotta hold on,  _please_."  
  
"Sasha," Bayley managed to get out, "I love - " and the phone was wrenched from her.  
  
"Your bitch of a girlfriend fucking bit me." a new voice told her, nasally, self-important. Sasha nearly laughed, hysterical, proud, and she must have made some sound that gave that away because in the next moment the woman was snapping, "Oh, you think that's  _funny?_  Well, I hope you think scars are funny because your girlfriend has a fucking big one now, right down from her eye to her mouth and - "  
  
"Give me that." the second freelancer cut in, her voice accented, lower. "We have a message for you from the Bellas."  
  
"And what would your message from  _the Bellas_  be?" Sasha asked, stuck between blatant sarcasm and feigned ignorance. The woman - Emma, Sasha figured because of the accent - didn't seem to notice.  
  
"They want to meet you at Regal Point. If you don't show," she continued, almost sounding pleased with herself, "It's Bye Bye Baby."  
  
"Yeah," the other woman - Dana Brooke - added, snatching the phone back. "Playtime's over after 9 pm - so don't be late!"   
  
Sasha shut her eyes tight and tried to think. "Will Bayley be there?"   
  
"Who knows?  _Maybe_." Dana Brooke laughed, nattering something to her partner.  
  
"And why did it take so long for  _the Bellas_  to get this demand to me?"  
  
Dana Brooke huffed, like Sasha was some kind of idiot, and said, "We have to go now. We've wasted enough time talking to  _you_. Don't want your girlfriend to get too lonely." she mocked.  
  
"She's my  _wife_." Sasha snapped. "And if you hurt her any more, what I was planning to do to you is going to seem like a goddamn cakewalk."  
  
"Ooh," Dana Brooke laughed. "I'm shaking in my shoes." and the call was ended.  
  
"Jimmy's cousin on the force said that there have been multiple noise complaints called in for a warehouse near the docks." Naomi jumped in after it was clear that Sasha needed a second to breathe. "One caller even mentioned they saw someone matching Kevin Owens' description leaving there a little bit ago."  
  
"Near Regal Point?" Sasha asked.  
  
Naomi shot her a look, and then glanced down at her phone where she'd already Google mapped the address. "Yeah," she allowed.  
  
"The Bellas' people called." Tamina added. "E texted to say they were told to meet you at Rhodes Pier, which is just a little ways down from Regal Point. "   
  
"At nine?" Sasha guessed. Tamina nodded. "So were we. If we don't go, they said..." but Sasha just shook her head. Everyone already knew. It wasn't worth saying. "What time is it?"  
  
"8:15." Naomi said, still looking at the map on her phone, already plotting the quickest route.   
  
"Where are you gonna go?" Nattie asked softly, looking gently, openly devastated. Sasha ran a hand through her hair and felt so angry, so sad, so exhausted.  
  
"I don't know." she said, mostly to herself, trying to think and getting lost in the swell of her fear. She closed her eyes, tugging a little at her hair, and exhaled as slowly as she could. "Naomi, see if Jimmy's cousin will go scout out Regal and Rhodes for us. We're gonna check out that warehouse."

* * *

Sasha had never been much of a fidgeter in her life, but she seemed to be getting a crash course, her hands ringing, legs crossing and uncrossing, constantly checking her phone even though she knew there'd be nothing there. She was almost furious with Naomi, too impatient with all the stop lights and other drivers and things outside of their control.  
  
"Hey," Tamina said, twisting in her seat to fix her gaze on Sasha, who didn't say anything back, just glanced up before checking her phone again. "Bayley's tough."  
  
"Are you gonna tell me she's gonna be okay?" Sasha nearly spat, almost immediately regretting her tone. Tamina took no notice of it.  
  
"All I'm saying is she's strong and she's smart - and you're strong and you're smart. If anyone can handle this, whatever happens, it's you two."   
  
Sasha's lips got tight, her throat lumping up, so she looked out the window again, trying not to say that she wasn't sure being strong and smart mattered if you didn't have enough luck.  
  
"I'm so sick of driving around." she finally said, the words coming out lame, too loud in the quiet of the car, her dry and aching throat garbling her voice. No one could say anything in response.   
  
The warehouse was smack in the middle of the dockyards, some industrial place that had probably been abandoned even before the recession. They parked a bit away so they wouldn't risk being heard, and Sasha surveyed the old building from afar; and she got the appeal. It was big, probably a once-was fish-processing plant; some nondescript, concrete building. It filled every cliche kidnapping story Sasha'd ever heard or been a part of.   
  
She drew her gaze away and tried to leave her sinking stomach and its butterflies in the car. She pulled out a crowbar from the trunk of the car, and few extra cartridges. Naomi took the bolt cutters; Tamina, the mag-lite.   
  
"Remember to silence your cellphones, kids." Sasha said, a little absently, checking her phone one last time, worried that Bayley would call and need her in the time it took them to walk from the car to inside.   
  
"Home base has our location." Naomi said as they started their approach. "They're on standby, if we need backup or to send them somewhere else. You just give me the word." and Sasha looked at her,  _really_  looked, and finally saw how tired she was, how exhausted and wrecked her friends were. She didn't insult their loyalty by thanking them for their help, and she nodded an affirmation, and they made it to the entry.  
  
They stood silently for a moment, Sasha waiting for someone to ask the obvious, someone to pipe up and wonder what they'd do if Bayley wasn't there and they didn't have enough time to make it to Regal Point - and maybe they should have split up, maybe they should have stuck with the Bellas, maybe maybe maybe. And no one said a word.  
  
Tamina finally spoke up. "It's locked from the outside." she said, gesturing to the locked chain snaked around the door's handles. "Must be another way in. You wanna go around?"   
  
"Nah." Sasha said. "Naomi, you got this."  
  
They worked quietly and quickly as they could with the bolt cutters, the owners of the warehouse clearly not caring enough to invest in decent security measures. Naomi gathered up the loose chain when it was all done, gripping it tight.   
  
Sasha pushed the door open.  
  
The air inside the warehouse was thick, stuffy, no real lingering scent of fish that Sasha'd expected. The walls were dark grey, with only a few naked bulbs to light the way, and their footsteps, as soft as they were, echoed in the long hallway - but that didn't given them much pause because there was a loud, choking, keening sounding coming from down the hall, faint enough to be far and separated, loud enough to be discernible.   
  
She wasn't crying. As they stepped closer and closer, Sasha at a near jog now, her notions of stealth forgotten, Naomi and Tamina trying to keep up and clear rooms at the same time, they could hear that the sounds she was making weren't wet sobs or hoarse wails. They were crackly, racked, ratcheted pitchings of her voice, like it was trying to claw its way out of her throat, bloody, messy, agonized.   
  
Sasha skated to a halt at the end of the hallway. There was no moment of hesitation, no shaking hand placed on the door as she wondered  _if i go to fast, if I startle them..._  She tore the door open, the low woman's voice that she'd only barely registered as speaking then cutting off.  
  
Bayley couldn't seem to keep from making those sounds, even as Sasha stood in the bust open door, Paige only a few paces away, her gun pointed at Bayley's forehead, the bodies of Emma and Dana Brooke both fallen at her feet.   
  
Sasha had her own piece out and pointed at Paige before the woman could turn her head. They stood, silent and still, and Bayley, delirious, finally was able to focus her eye on Sasha. She made a deep, rasping sound in her chest, like she was relieved, and Tamina and Naomi came running in, immediately crowding in around the Boss's woman, starting to check her over.  
  
Paige flashed her teeth in a fake smile. "This isn't what it looks like."   
  
"Oh." Sasha bit out, trying hard to contain her desire to just shoot Paige then and there. "Because it looks like you've got a gun trailed on my wife."   
  
Paige kept smiling, only seeming half-concerned, like she thought she still might get away with it. "I just got rid of these two. They were working for the Bellas. I found your lady love just in time to save her from them. Who knows what else they would have done."   
  
"That's sweet of you." Sasha said through her teeth. "It'd be sweeter if you'd put your gun  _down_."  
  
Her eyes narrowed, her mouth twitched with displeasure, seemingly hesitant to take her aim off the one bargaining chip she had, but Paige flashed those pearly whites one last time and, in a swift move, put her hands up in peace. "Anything you say, Boss."  
  
Sasha finally let out the breath she'd been holding in. Sight still set on Paige, she demanded, "Someone keep an eye on her," which Naomi did in a heartbeat, giving Sasha the chance to finally take in her wife.  
  
Bayley's hair had all been chopped off, brown clumps scattered around her feet, the cut job uneven, parts of her scalp showing through here and there. The gash Dana Brooke had bragged about wasn't bleeding any longer but was bruising and swelling around the long incision which kissed from forehead to lips, purpling up the side of Bayley's face, her one eye swollen shut so Sasha had no idea of its status.  
  
Her lips were trembling, single eye blinking at Sasha in shock and fear and disbelief. Her hands were mangled, fingers broken in all directions, missing fingernails, leaving her tips open and wet. Some damage had been done to her knees, blood pooling through the material of her leggings.   
  
But worst of all was the way her whole body was trembling, quaking uncontrollably, now even more because she'd been untied, the ropes having kept her steady. She was shaking her head, eye locked on Sasha's, as Sasha took step after step toward her.  
  
"Boss, she needs to be taken to the hospital." Tamina urged softly. Sasha had never seen Bayley so wide-eyed and scared, and she brought her hand up to her wife's unbruised cheek.  
  
"Baby." she said, and Bayley started to shake even more, tears welling in her eye. Sasha shook herself out of it. "Baby, Tamina and Naomi are going to get you to a hospital, okay?"   
  
"I don't want to leave you." Bayley hoarsed out, voice loud enough but toneless. Sasha stroked her thumb across her cheekbone, and some of Bayley's usual determination fired in her gaze, despite the fact that she still couldn't stop shaking. "Paige did it, not the Bellas."  
  
"Clearly, she's delusional." Paige scoffed. "I saved her from those two, Sasha. Someone really needs to get her some help."  
  
Sasha didn't break contact with her wife. "I'm gonna talk to Paige. You need to go with Tamina and Naomi."   
  
"I'm staying." Bayley demanded, wavering, and that was that.  
  
"Tamina, go get some blankets from the car and let everyone know what our status is. I'm gonna see if I can get some more information out of Paige."  
  
And Paige was finally starting to seem more wary, her stance widening, eyes darting to the door as Tamina walked out, phone to ear, already calling home base.   
  
"You honestly can't tell me you're listening to her, can you?" Paige asked. "She's not in her right mind. I think she has a  _serious_  concussion."   
  
"Putting aside the fact that I always listen to my wife," Sasha enunciated, he rage warming and roiling inside her now that she had a clearly guilty target, "I don't need anyone else to tell me what's obvious."  
  
"And what's obvious?" Paige ventured, her fingers tightening around her gun, still raised in a play of harmlessness.  
  
Sasha fixed and unimpressed look at the other woman, her anger making the expression venomous enough that Paige's arm tightened, muscles clenching, ready to make the few moments necessary to point ant shoot. Without another word, Sasha aimed and shot out Paige's dominant wrist.  
  
The gun clattered to the floor.

Paige collapsed onto one knee next to it, already pressing over the wound. " _Fucker_ ," she choked out, her teeth clenched. Her eyes blazed up at Sasha, and she said it again, her voice even more strained as she tried to stagger to her feet. "You mother _fucker_."  
  
Sasha took a step forward now, trailing her aim directly between Pagie's eyes. "I wouldn't be in such a haste to get up if I were you. And I would start to choose my words very carefully if you want to continue saying them past tonight."   
  
"Sasha," Naomi said, "I think Bayley's passing out."  
  
"No." Bayley rasped, eye blinking blearily as she watched.   
  
Sasha inclined her head to Naomi and let her once again take over watching Paige. "I am such an idiot," Sasha said, kneeling in front of her wife so they could be level. "I should have made you go with Tamina."  
  
"I don't want to leave you." Bayley mumbled, urgency trying to convey itself over exhaustion. "Don't  _leave_  me. Don't make me go without you."  
  
"Baby, I got to  _work_  - " and she was interrupted by another gunshot, Naomi having planted another bullet in Paige's hand, causing her to scream, to curl up into herself on the dirty ground. "Goddamn it, Naomi!" Sasha said, standing. "We gotta make sure we get some questions answered first! If she passes out, she's no good!"  
  
"Fuck you," Paige wheezed, barley managing the words out. "I'm not saying anything," collapsed on her side now, clutching her wrist to her chest and sobbing.   
  
Sasha sent Naomi an extremely displeased look, and Naomi shrugged. "She looked like she was gonna try something. Besides, what's there to ask? We know she hired Thing 1 and Thing 2 and we know she was trying to get us to wipe out the Bellas, or vice versa. That's good enough for me."  
  
Tamina was walking back in, with a first aid kit and a thick blanket. She barley even looked at Paige where she was curisng and groaning on the ground, it now apparent that one of her fingers had been blown off by Naomi's shot.   
  
"Kofi has an EMT friend he's sending our way." she explained over Paige's noise, starting to gently wrap the blanket around Bayley's shoulders, bundling her up as gently as she could without touching her hands. "It'll get you to McMahon General. Dr. Foley should be on duty tonight."  
  
"You'll go with her." Sasha said to Tamina.  
  
"No." Bayley stated, but she was getting softer and softer, her body seeming to have accepted that it wasn't going to be killed and slipping closer and closer to sleep - or maybe it was just the concussion.   
  
"Naomi and I will take care of this." Sasha said, more to her associate, but in a soothing tone for the sake of her wife. Firmer, she demanded, "You will not let her fall asleep."  
  
" _No_." Bayley repeated. "No, Sasha."  
  
"You gonna let your bitch wife tell you what to do, Sasha?" Paige said, seemingly have decided to stop whining and wailing, leaning herself against the wall, hissing out her words. "Who's really the boss here?"  
  
"Hey, shut the fuck up." Tamina stated, more as a warning than a threat. Sasha wanted to thank her; at least  _someone_  else wanted answers.  
  
"I'm the boss." Bayley stated, eye fluttering a little. "I won't go without you." she shook her head.  
  
"Baby," Sasha implored, glancing at Paige. Looking back at her wife, she almost felt whiny saying, "You hate watching me work - and it might take a while. When the EMT comes, you gotta go with him."  
  
"It doesn't have to take long." Bayley told her. "You can finish before the man comes. Then you can come with me."   
  
Sasha's mouth got tight, and she gave Tamina a look, making sure she was watching Bayley closely and fixing the blanket whenever it slipped. She turned her attention to Paige, scrutinizing her carefully while she bled and swore and seethed.  
  
"Why'd you kill those two goons?" she asked, starting easy, taking a very casual step toward her, holstering her gun and opting for the crowbar. "I mean, I know they were obnoxious, but come on," she said, smiling tight, "Didn't they do their job?"  
  
Paige eyed the crowbar and then the other woman. "I think if I'm going to die tonight, I'd rather not have my last words be telling you shit you're too dumb to figure out."  
  
"Who said you gotta die tonight?" Sasha asked. "I can think of lots of people who'd be less than pleased if I offed you without offering them a piece first. And who knows, little Miss Flair has got all that misguided nobility - maybe she'll just hand you over to the cops."  
  
"Well," Paige grinned back, looking deranged. "If that's the case, I may as well say nothing and wait to get picked up. Either way, it does't seem like I have much to worry about from you."  
  
Sasha laughed. "Naomi."  
  
"Yeah, Boss?'  
  
"Trade me; I want to use that chain you grabbed."  
  
Paige was squirming on her back, trying to get to her feet to defend herself by the time the trade-off was made. "Stop," she was saying as Sasha approached. "Fuck you, fuck - "  
  
There was a bit of a struggle, Paige obviously not wanting to be strangled, but Sasha didn't let it phase her. She got the chain around Paige's neck, manhandled her onto her stomach. Paige was trying to push and kick her way away, but Sasha got a boot between her shoulder blades and pressed down, gripping the chain firmly and pulling up.  
  
For a few moments, the only sound that echoed through the room was choking, Paige gurgling for breath. Sasha relaxed for a moment and Paige gasped in air, and Sasha almost wished she could see the other woman's face, red from deprivation, maybe wet from tears.   
  
"Why'd you kill Dana Brooke and Emma?" Sasha tried again.  
  
"Fuh - " Paige breathed. Sasha yanked up again and Paige made a startled, gagging yell. Sasha laxed the hold, and Paige was already babbling, "Because they wanted more money," her voice hoarse. "An hour ago, they said they wouldn't go through with it unless I paid them more."   
  
"Do what exactly?" Sasha probed.  
  
"Kill your wife." Paige croaked out. Sasha glanced over at Bayley, whose eye was now wide open, nowhere close to slipping unconscious, watching with rapt attention. Sasha, looking at her wife, who had been hurt and violated and  _alone_ , couldn't hold back the anger that coursed through her. Her hands tightened around the chain and she looked back down at the panting woman under her.  
  
"Why did you want to kill my wife?" she asked, voice icy and smooth, opposing how garbled it felt leaving her throat. Paige didn't answer immediately, so Sasha started to choke her again until the woman's gunshot hand was pounding against the floor, uncaring of it's own injury, and the croaking, choking, gagging sounds were she made even more desperate.   
  
"They were supposed to dump her at Regal Point for you to find." Paige gasped out once she was allowed. " _Stop_." she begged, mindlessly.  
  
"Is that what you did to John?" Sasha asked.  
  
"John?" Bayley repeated, her voice trembling as she realized. Sasha glanced over, half-guilty that this was how Bayley found out, the rest of her consumed with seeing red because here was yet another thing that was hurting her wife.  
  
" _Yes_." Paige said.  
  
"And you thought this was gonna work?" Sasha growled out, intermittently yanking on the chain.   
  
" _Yes!_ " Paige cried. " _Yes! Yes!_ "  
  
"You dumb shit." Sasha hissed, dropping the chain and flipping Paige over. She grabbed the crowbar from Naomi, who was already holding it out for her. "You pathetic, dumb, fucking piece of shit," she was spitting, rearing the crowbar back, ready to bring it down over Paige's face, but Bayley said wait and so she stopped.  
  
Sasha met her eye again, feeling more distressed than she could say, it all culminating as she watched her wife stop her from killing some fucking worthless mobster who had  _hurt_  her.  
  
"The ambulance is here." Tamina said.   
  
"Are you staying?" Naomi asked.  
  
Bayley shook her head, and Sasha could see her lips were trembling again, her eye filled with tears.  
  
"No." Sasha agreed. "No. You two call the Bellas and watch Paige until they send someone to get her. I'll go to the hospital with Bayley."  
  
And they could hear footsteps racing down the hallway, EMTs coming in to stretcher Bayley out. Sasha jogged beside as they took her away, not even glancing back at Paige, who Sasha knew she'd never see again, never get another chance to get her hands on.   
  
And Sasha couldn't even hold Bayley's hand in the ambulance because of her fingers and the EMTs that were too busy, bustling around her, hooking up IVs, assessing the damage.   
  
Sasha's head hurt and her  _heart_  hurt, and she kept thinking  _if she'd just come an hour earlier_  and  _what if she'd been a minute too late_. She put her head in her hands, scrubbed at her eyes.  
  
"Hey." Bayley rasped as one of the EMTs started to cut the material away from her knees. Sasha looked up, and Bayley was gazing at her, warm and relieved and tired. It made Sasha want to start crying all over again. Sasha didn't say anything, couldn't, just looked at her, drank the sight of her in.   
  
"Shh," Bayley said, reaching over, mangled hand stretching out in an act of comfort. Sasha stopped it, a gentle hand on Bayley's elbow, and she pressed a soft kiss to the top of her wrist, eyes squeezing shut so she wouldn't embarrass herself.  
  
When she pulled back, Bayley was smiling, weakly, as much as she could. "You got me." she reminded her, like praise, like a promise.  
  
"Yeah," Sasha harshed, throat too tight, heart too full. "I got you."

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys, hope you liked it. 
> 
> Hit me up on my tumblr at [my dope-ass blog](http://gigglesnortbangdead.tumblr.com/). Come talk to me about rasslin, and make all of the people who followed me for Teen Wolf super uncomfortable and then unfollow me! hahahahahaa


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